PAUL Stevenson’s dealt with the trauma of the Port Arthur massacre, the Bali bombings and the Boxing Day tsunami but none of it compares with what he’s seen on Nauru and Manus Island. And speaking out about it has cost him his job. His voice joins yet another loud chorus of protest from the United Nations commissioner for refugees, Australian ... Read More »
IMMIGRATION Minister Peter Dutton has refused to step in and allow the release of young Iranian asylum seeker Mojgan Shamsalipoor who is in detention in Brisbane. The 22-year-old woman has been held in immigration facilities in Darwin and Brisbane the past two years and faces deportation, despite the impassioned pleas of her community support group and her 22-year-old husband Milad ... Read More »
REFUGEES in the Manus Island detention facility have written to a former teacher to express their joy after Papua New Guinea officials announced the centre would be closed. Catholic teacher Jacob Rice received “messages of jubilation” from his former students on the island when a Supreme Court ruling declared the immigration detention centre illegal. “I have received messages of jubilation and ... Read More »
REFUGEE advocates have demanded the Federal Government put an end to children ever being held in immigration detention again. The detention of children has been described as a contributor to long-term trauma, a violation of duty of care and morally wrong by refugee advocates. Brisbane’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission welcomed the April 3 announcement by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to ... Read More »
AMERICA’S leading public health institute released a report last year detailing the most common times babies were born. According to the report, released by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s Centre for Health Statistics, a majority of United States babies born in 2013 arrived in the new world between 8am and lunchtime. Were those babies born in Sudan’s western ... Read More »
A SENIOR priest who works closely with asylum seekers in detention has called on the Prime Minister to end their incarceration. Darwin diocese vicar general Fr Malcolm Fyfe has described harrowing conditions inside the Wickham Point detention centre on the outskirts of Darwin. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart priest’s plea to the Prime Minister has the backing of Darwin ... Read More »
ASYLUM seekers on Manus Island have told one of their former English teachers they would prefer death than their indefinite sentence in detention. Jacob Rice worked as a fly-in, fly-out maths and English teacher at the Manus Island immigration detention centre for nine months between December last year and August this year. “They tell me that they’re praying for death,” ... Read More »
THE minute former Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Australia would accept extra refugees from Syria, Catholic bishops, priests, parishes and individuals started raising their hands to say “We’ll help”. Archbishop Mark Coleridge was among the first, on behalf of the people of Brisbane archdiocese. By the time Archbishop Coleridge announced last weekend the archdiocese would aim to welcome at least ... Read More »
AUSTRALIA’S largest Catholic volunteer organisation has vowed to help the nation’s increased intake of persecuted Syrians find a safe haven in their newfound home. The St Vincent de Paul Society National Council of Australia welcomed the recent government’s decision to accept a further 12,000 refugees from Syria, confirmed yesterday. The society’s chief executive Dr John Falzon said ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
